Capital Advisors Inc. OK Grows Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Capital Advisors Inc. OK raised its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 141,710 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,559 shares during the quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK owned approximately 0.05% of Ecolab worth $33,205,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new position in Ecolab in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners boosted its stake in Ecolab by 62.0% in the third quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Hara Capital LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab in the third quarter valued at about $40,000. Abound Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 212.5% in the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the period. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $47,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ecolab Trading Up 6.2 %

Shares of ECL opened at $261.07 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $73.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.62, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $241.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $245.97. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $201.99 and a twelve month high of $267.56.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.64 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.00%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 36.47%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the topic of several research reports. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group lowered shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 83,873 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.96, for a total value of $20,629,403.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,534,868 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,264,396,133.28. This represents a 0.28 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 360,415 shares of company stock worth $88,350,899. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Company Profile

Ecolab Inc provides water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Global Industrial; Global Institutional & Specialty; and Global Healthcare & Life Sciences. The Global Industrial segment offers water treatment and process applications, and cleaning and sanitizing solutions to manufacturing, food and beverage processing, transportation, chemical, metals and mining, power generation, pulp and paper, commercial laundry, petroleum, refining, and petrochemical industries.